Stanford Defeats UConn

Published Jan 18, 2015 at 6:31 PM

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Chasson Randle needs very little motivation to play basketball. Getting an extra boost of energy from the capacity crowd was a bonus.

Randle scored 23 points, Rosco Allen added a career-high 13 rebounds and Stanford beat defending national champions Connecticut 72-59 on Saturday night. Anthony Brown added 18 points and Stefan Nastic had 13 points to go with 12 rebounds for the Cardinal (13-4), who won their third straight and seventh of eight overall.

"It's awesome to have Maples (Pavilion) filled to the top like that," Randle said of the sellout crowd of 7,104. "It gave us energy."

Randle, the Pac-12's leading scorer, followed his 25-point effort in a victory over California on Wednesday with another show of marksmanship. He's 15 of 29 (51.7 percent) other his past two games, including 8 of 14 (57.1) from 3-point range.

"Randall is a great player, Brown is a great player," Huskies' coach Kevin Ollie said. "They put pressure on the defense on all three levels. They can score on all three levels and that's a good recipe for guards."

Randle has scored at least 23 points in four of his last five games and has reached double figures in 16 of 17 games.

"We played with great energy and executed our game plan," Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins said. "We were getting good looks in the first half and just not finishing them. We talked about settling down in the second half."

Rodney Purvis scored 14 points to lead the Huskies (9-7), who lost their second straight after winning five of their previous six. Omar Calhoun added 11 points.

"They just wanted it more," Purvis said. "They just wanted the ball more. Any 50-50 ball, they were getting it. That's all on us. The coach can't draw up any plays to fix that — that effort and energy has to come from within the players."

Stanford dominated play over the final 10 minutes, pulling away after Connecticut made it a one-possession game midway through the second half.

The Cardinal now have beaten the Huskies two straight after losing their first four meetings in the series.

Stanford never trailed after taking the lead with 5:56 left in the first half. There were four lead changes and six ties.

Nastic and Allen allowed Stanford to overpower the Huskies on the boards, 48-24. The Cardinal's 18 offensive rebounds is a season-high.

"We needed guys to step," Allen said. "They were coming off a tough loss and we had to be ready."

Purvis hit a 3-pointer midway through the second half to draw the Huskies within 50-47.

The Cardinal went on a 14-2 run over the next seven minutes to pull ahead, 64-49, forcing a Connecticut timeout.

Stanford led by as many as eight points in the first half before the Huskies closed to within 32-29 at intermission.

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Connecticut senior Ryan Boatright and Stanford senior Chasson Randle were co-winners of the Mr. Basketball of Illinois Award in 2011. It was the only time in the 33-year history of the award that voting resulted in a tie. "We faced each other during the summer," Randle said. The Huskies and Cardinal last met at Maples Pavilion in 1999, when both teams were ranked in the top 10. Connecticut went on to the national title that year.

Stanford honored Brevin Knight during the game as part of its 100th anniversary of men's basketball. Knight led the Cardinal to its first ever Sweet Sixteen in 1997 (Stanford's 1942 national championship team went straight to the Final Four).